Walking Slow but Breathing Fast
by Bandit-sama
Summary: Lettuce has a what? A crush on a girl? But everyone thought that she liked Ryo! Will Lettuce's crush work out? Or will something else happen that involves her Mew Mew lifestyle? R&R please! Lettuce
1. Feelings

I don't own TTM or any it's characters. I only own Midori. This TTM story isn't very cute at frist but it will get better later! Enjoy your reading!

* * *

"I'm so late." Lettuce said as she ran down the alleyways of her hometown. She had forgotten to set her alarm for school and had awoken an hour late. She was trying her best to get to school on time because she had a big test coming up and she didn't want to miss anything she would need to pass it.

I bet that I missed everything that I need. I bet the teacher won't let me make it up either.> Lettuce thought to herself.

As she ran she bumped into someone causing everything to go flying. She fell to the floor and scuffed her knee a bit.

"I'm sorry!" She said sadly. "I wasn't looking were I was going!"

"You bet you weren't." A voice from the person she ran into said. He was tall, and had a tight black shirt on which reveled his muscular build. His face was rough and unshaven and he was wearing a black beanie.

"I'll just be going now sir." Lettuce said as she reached for her belongings.

The man stepped on her small wrist with his black boots. "No way sweet heart. You ain't goin' no where." He placed his face next to hers.

"Please just leave me alone! I don't want any trouble!" Lettuce begged as she moved her arm, trying to get it from under his foot. He just pressed down harder. "Please!" Lettuce yelled.

"I'm gonna make you scream baby."

Lettuce was scared to death. Could he really do what she thought he was going to do? She was only 13 there had to be some law ageist this, something that would stop him from doing this to her. She was too weak and small to stop him. He was big and strong and willing to do whatever he could to get to her.

"Hey!" A female voice yelled from the front of the alleyway.

Both of them looked to see a woman with long dark blue hair, all of it pushed behind her shoulders, deep green eyes, a black jacket around her and black jeans. She looked infuriated as she walked up to the two.

"Back the hell off of her you fucking sicko. Go stick you dick some other place." She hissed.

"Ohh.." He said nervously. "Midori..Is this young lady a friend of yours?"

"Yeah so back off." She walked over to Lettuce. "Don't let me catch you mess'n with her again." Midori raised her fist and punched the guy in the face. "You hear me?"

"Yeah I hear ya." He turned away quickly and walked away full of anger.

"You okay?" She asked turning to Lettuce, her voice now kinder.

"Oh." Lettuce stood up. "Fine thank you."

"Here." Midori reached down and picked up Lettuce's school bag. "You dropped this."

Lettuce blushed and took it. "Thank you."

"No prob. By the way my name's Midori."

"Mine's Lettuce."

"Well take care Lettuce. If ya ever need help just ask around for me. Show them this." Midori handed Lettuce a small card. "See ya." Midori turned and began to walk away.

"Wait! How can I repay you?" Lettuce yelled. She had to give her something. She had saved her life in her own opinion.

"Your name was enough." Midori said as she turned around and smiled. "Take care."

Lettuce walked out of the alleyway with a blush on her face. Her life had just been saved by someone that she didn't even know. She had to repay her somehow. But would Lettuce ever even see her again?

* * *

"So then what happened?" Ichigo asked as she lend forward.

"She came and saved me." Lettuce said.

They were in Café Mew Mew taking their hard earned break when Lettuce told Ichigo what had happened that morning. Ichigo was amazed and yet scared that something like that could happen to one of her closest friends.

"Who?"

"Midori." Lettuce blushed. "She came and saved me from him."

"Midori?" Ryo said popping up from behind Ichigo.

Ichigo meowed as she turned to him. "Don't do that!" Her kitten ears popped up and her tail also as she tried to hide them.

"Midori is the queen of the gangs. You met her?" Ryo asked in amassment.

"Yeah." Lettuce said shyly.

"Wow." Ryo said as stuck a pastry in his mouth.

"Are you okay?" Ichigo asked sincerely.

"Yeah." Lettuce smiled. Her friends concern for her made her happy. It made a strange feeling come up inside of her to have someone worry about her the way the Ichigo did. But Lettuce liked it.

"Speak of the devil." Ryo said as he finished off his pastry.

"What?" Ichigo looked up at him.

"There's Midori." Ryo nogged his head towards the counter where Mint was working. Mint was serving Midori.

"Wow is that really her?" Ichigo said in surprise.

"Yeah." Lettuce said quietly as a blush came over her.

"Just a box of cakes." Midori said to Mint as she sighed.

"Just a minute." Mint said as she walked into the back.

Midori looked around the small café only to notice that Lettuce was looking back at her. Midori blinked a few times and walked over to her.

"She's comin' over here." Ryo said in a surprised voice.

"Really?!" Lettuce blushed as she turned around so as not to face Midori.

"Excuse me?" Midori said as she tired to look at Lettuce. Lettuce kept moving so as not to show her face, but Midori kept trying to look. They went through this little dance until Midori fell right into Lettuce's chest.

Ryo's pastry fell out of his mouth, Ichigo's mouth flew open, and Lettuce blushed and looked away. Midori stood up and brushed herself off.

"Sorry 'bout that." She laughed gently.

Her laugh. It sent shivers up Lettuce's spine and she had no idea why. Her heart skipped a beat as Midori continued to laugh and tired to make Lettuce laugh so that it was less embarrassing for the both of them.

"Can I make it up to you?" Midori asked.

"No it's okay." Lettuce looked up at her with a gentle smile.

"Hey.." Midori said blinking. "You're that kid that I saved earlier today."

"Oh yeah." Lettuce looked away.

"I guess we're even now!" Midori said happily. "You work here?"

"Yeah." Lettuce blushed. How come when she's around me all I can say is "yeah"? Lettuce thought to herself. Come on Lettuce you can do better then just "yeah".

"How old are you anyway?" Midori asked as Lettuce noticed that she was looking at her body.

"13. Now." Lettuce blushed even harder as she looked into Midori's eyes. "You?"

"Me? I'm 16." Midori said with a gentle smile.

"16?" Ichigo asked. "You look so much older."

"Is that good or bad?" Midori laughed. "Are you one of Lettuce's friends?"

"Yep!" Ichigo smiled. "My name's Ichigo!"

"You look like a little kitten." Midori said as she studied Ichigo's face.

Ryo laughed to himself a bit as Ichigo tired to laugh off the truth. "I get that a lot." She said as she scratched the back of her head.

"Oh by the way, Lettuce, how's your wrist?" Midori asked.

"Fine." Lettuce said as she looked at her wrist, which was a bit swollen.

"You'd better put ice on it."

"Number 71!" Mint yelled as she held out a box.

"Oh that's mine." Midori turned to Mint. "I'll see you guys later." She looked down at Lettuce. "Bye Lettuce. By the way you look cute when you smile. You should do it more often." Midori walked over to Mint.

Blush came all over Lettuce as she looked away from Midori. "Bye."

The three watched as Midori walked over to the counter, took the pastries and left. She walked out of café mew mew with a smile on her face.

"Wow you really do know Midori." Ryo said in amazement. The watch he was wearing went off. He looked at it and quickly turned it off. "Back to work Ichigo."

Ichigo sighed. "Okay. Come on Lettuce."

"Sure." Lettuce stood up as Ryo looked at her.

"You don't have to work Lettuce. You've been through enough today, go on home."

Lettuce blushed. "No I'm okay."

"No." Ryo walked over to her, picked up her wrist, and smiled at her. "Go home and make sure your wrist gets better."

"Yes..Ryo. If you insist."

Lettuce changed back into her normal clothes and began to walk home. The night sky was above Lettuce's head as she walked, and thought to herself. Midori made her feel so weird. It was the same feeling that she got when she first met Ryo. She used to like Ryo but the crush wore off for some reason. But now the feeling was back, but for Midori? Could Lettuce really like another woman? She was open to everything, but was all this true? She barely knew Midori and yet she had all these feelings for her. Was this right?

"I'm home!" Lettuce said as she walked into her house.

"Okay honey! Dinner will be ready in a few minutes!" Her Mom yelled.

"Mom?" Lettuce walked into her kitchen to she her Mother over a hot stove. "Can you look at my wrist?"

"Sure honey." Her Mother tore away from the stove and looked at her daughter's wrist. "We should get ice on this." She turned to the freezer and took out a bag of ice. "Here, go lay down. I'll bring dinner to you."

"No thanks. I'm not really that hungry. I ate at the café." Lettuce lied.

"Okay. Take this and go to bed." Her Mother said as she gave her the ice bag. "Get some sleep."

"Yes Mom." Lettuce took the ice bag and ran upstairs.

When she got into her bedroom, she closed the door and fell ageist it. She hated to lie to her Mother, even over little things, but she hated it. She walked over to her bed and laid down in it. She took off her glasses and buried her face in it, and began to cry.

She had almost gotten raped today. How could she have been so stupid? She never went down that alleyway, but today had been different, she was late so she wasn't thinking. Everyone around her had always told her that she was smart so why had she made such a stupid move?

"Lettuce!" Her Mother yelled from down stairs.

Lettuce looked up and wiped the tears from her eyes quickly. She stiffed her voice so her Mother wouldn't be able to tell that she had been crying. "Yes?"

"Come here for a second!"

Lettuce stood up and walked down the stairs to smell her Mother's cooking fill the air. "Yes Mom?"

"Can you go down to the store and buy milk? We're all out and your Father's too sick to go." Her Mother asked as she chopped away at something.

"Yes Ma'm." Lettuce grabbed money off of the nearby counter and walked out of the house.

Summer was right around the corner so Lettuce had no reason to take a coat. Even though it was dark, it was warm out. Lettuce quickly ran down to the store. She felt like a little child, afraid of the dark. She just wanted to buy the milk and get home before anything happened again.

Lettuce walked into a store that her family always went to, found the milk and brought it up to the counter were she paid for it.

"Come again!" The clerk said as Lettuce ran out of the store.

"Hey!" A voice yelled.

Lettuce turned around to see Midori with a big smile on her face. Lettuce looked around to make sure that no one else was with Midori as she ran over to her with a bag in her arms.

"Hey Lettuce!" Midori said happily.

"Hi."

"What are you doing out here this late?"

"Oh I just came here to buy milk for my Mom that's all." Lettuce said as she looked around.

"Weird. I came here to buy milk too." Midori said as she noticed Lettuce looking around. "What's up?"

"Oh nothing..I'm just.."

"Nervous about being outside? I don't blame you." Midori placed her hand on Lettuce's shoulder. "You want me to walk you home?"

Lettuce perked up a bit. "Okay thanks."

As the two began to walk, Midori turned to Lettuce. "You know I heard this saying once. If you meet a person and then see them three more times during that day, it's not coincidence but density. You think?"

"Maybe." Lettuce blushed. That weird feeling was coming back to her.

"Hey have you heard of the Tokyo Mew Mews?"

"Yeah." Lettuce twitched. "What about them?"

"They're so cool. Super hero's man..that's cool. They just like swoop in and save the day. And they never get thanked for it."

"Oh yeah.." Lettuce said realizing that they never did.

"I wanna meet one. Especially the green one! She's so cool! Not to mention cute!" Midori laughed.

Lettuce blushed harder. She was talking about her. But it wasn't really her. Just her transformed self. Not just plain old Lettuce.

"Hey Midori?" Lettuce asked gathering all of her courage.

"Yeah?"

"Are you..uh..attracted to women?"

"Well I'm not really sure. I think I'm a bit too young to make such a big life choice but I do have a rule for myself. Never put any limits on anyone. You fall in love with someone for their personality. Not for what sex they are. Get it? It's weird. Sometimes you fall in love with someone, no matter what gender they are. Man or woman..it's how they treat you as a lover that matters."

Lettuce took that all in. Was what Midori said all true? Could it be alright for Lettuce to have a crush on a woman? Lettuce thought about it. It was okay. Okay.

"You think?" Midori asked breaking through all of Lettuce's thoughts.

"Oh yeah."

They walked up to Lettuce's house. Lettuce turned and looked at Midori. "Well thank you." She said bowing down.

"No prob. Be safe okay Lettuce." Midori said with a smile on her face. "Have a nice night."

"You two." Lettuce walked into her house and closed the door.

* * *

Thanks for reading! That's the end of chapter one! Please R&R! No flames! Please keep reading!


	2. Chance

I don't own TMM or any of it's characters, I only own Midori.

Oh my God. I finally updated this thing after years. My reason? We were moving when I first published this and lost everything I had on this. I just now found everything, and I have now started to work on this again. I'm sorry to everyone who was so sweet to me, and gave me a review or alerted this. Thank you so much from the bottom of my little heart.

I hope you can find something new in this because my wirting style has changed a great deal. Don't worry I don't think I'll leave this fic because I never want to do that with a fic. I will never give up. I've got more chapters on the way so don't worry.

Enjoy.

* * *

"Ribbon Lettuce rush!" Mew Mew Lettuce yelled as the enemy in front of her fell. She sighed and looked around. No one else was there.

Lettuce looked out to the sea, which was right next to her. It's beautiful out here. I don't know why I don't come here more often. Lettuce thought to herself.

"Lettuce!"

She turned around quickly. _How does he know who I really am?_ She thought.

She turned around to see the man from the alleyway. He had a sinister grin on his face as he ran over to her quickly.

"Ribbon Lettuce rush!" Mew Mew Lettuce yelled as she tried to fire her attack, only to have it bounce off of him with no damage done.

"What?" Mew Mew Lettuce asked in disbelief.

The man caught her, wrapped his hands around her neck, and pinned her to the floor. He wrapped his legs around Lettuce's young waist and smiled.

"This time I will have you." He said with a smile.

"No let me go!" Mew Mew Lettuce yelled as she felt herself transform back into her normal self. "Let me go!"

"Not this time sweet stuff." He said as he unzipped his fly.

"No!" Lettuce yelled. She struggled around, hoping to get away but the man was too strong. She couldn't even stop him when she was in her Mew Mew form. She tired to get her arms lose but it was no use. She was stuck, and she was going to get raped this time.

Tears formed under her eyes as she opened her mouth to scream but only one thing came out. The only thing she could think of at the time.

"Midori!"

"Midori ain't here baby." The man said as he opened Lettuce's thin legs. "She ain't gonna save you this time."

"S-Stop." Lettuce whispered. "Just stop."

* * *

"Just stop!" Lettuce yelled as she woke up in her bedroom covered in sweat. She held her head as she wiped the small tears from her face. Everything had seemed so real, like she was there.

"Lettuce!" Her Mother's voice yelled from downstairs. "Lettuce!"

"Yes Ma'am?" Lettuce yelled back after taking in a big breath of air.

"You're going to be late for school!"

"Okay! Thank you!" Lettuce wiped the tears from her eyes. She never wanted to be late for school again.

* * *

School went on and rather then stimulating her mind, it brought boredom to Lettuce. Everything she had gone over today she had already memorized so the day was rather boring. But in her boredom, it left her time to think about things. Midori.

Why Lettuce couldn't do anything but think about Midori was beyond her. She figured that it was all out of some kind of boredom, not wanting to think of anything else like her liking someone out of knowing her for only a few moments. But no one had ever defended her like she had. No one had ever really treated her that well expect for the other Mew Mews.

_I'm getting ahead of myself._ Lettuce thought as she looked out of the window by her side.

She looked back down to her blank piece of paper only to notice that her hand was shaking. Blinking, she looked harder down at her hand and tired to see if she was doing it on purpose or perhaps her arm was falling asleep but she wasn't. Her hand was shaking on its own, and the pen in her hand fell onto the paper.

_What's wrong with me?_ She asked herself as she grabbed her hand. _Why am I shaking? I didn't eat anything this morning so maybe the lack of sugar is getting to me. I'll get something to eat at lunch.

* * *

_

After Lettuce had finished school, she walked over to the café, looking around as she did. Once inside of the café and once she had changed into her work outfit, she walked into the kitchen and began to nibble on a small pastry.

"Are you feeling alright today?" Ryo asked as he walked over to her.

"Yes." Lettuce answered as she blushed. "I'm feeling much better today."

"That's good." He smiled. "Why don't you go work with the other girls? Maybe that will cheer you up a bit."

"Thank you." Lettuce bowed and walked into the dining room where she saw the other girls running around, serving food to random people.

They work so hard. Lettuce thought with a smile.

"Lettuce!" Pudding yelled playfully as she jumped on the green haired girl's back. "You're finally here!"

"I'm sorry I'm a bit late." Lettuce said with a slight giggle.

"Lettuce!" Ichigo called out. "Come help me please! Mint doesn't want to do anything!"

"It's my tea time!" Mint argued with Ichigo.

"It's always your tea time!" Ichigo argued back playfully.

"I can't help it if I'm a lady." Mint smiled and began drinking from her cup once more.

"Please help her." Zakuro asked as she walked by with a tray full of dirty dishes. "We're a bit behind on orders as it is."

"Of course!" Lettuce ran over to where Ichigo was working and began to clean the empty tables.

Being here made Lettuce forget about everything that had been happening in her life. Here she could just be with her friends and work her mind off of school and anything else that was bothering her. Here, she could be normal.

* * *

After work, Lettuce was walking home with Ichigo, and Mint. They were going over to Mint's house for a sleepover, and to cheer up Lettuce because of everything she had been going through lately. On the way, they stopped at a small convenient store to pick up foods they could eat late at night together.

"Get something good." Mint said as she looked through the aisles. "Maybe you can find something, I can't."

"We'll find _something_." Ichigo said, puffing up her cheeks.

Lettuce went up an aisle alone and found something she liked. She picked it up off of the shelf, and came around the corner to tell Ichigo when she slammed into someone. She felt herself falling, but the person grabbed her and pulled her back up.

"You okay Lettuce?" The person asked gently.

Lettuce blinked, recognizing the voice and looked up to see Midori and a smile on her face.

"Midori?" Lettuce asked.

"Yeah." Midori let go of Lettuce and stepped back. "Are you okay?"

She looked up and down Midori to see that she was dressed differently from the last time they had met. Her hair was back in a messy bun, and she was wearing a black dress shirt and plain brown pants with a blue apron covering the front of her outfit.

"Lettuce?" Midori asked, wondering if something was wrong.

She shook her head. "I'm sorry," she bowed, "I didn't mean to bump into you."

"It's alright." Midori laughed gently. "I wasn't watching where I was going either."

"Lettuce!" Ichigo called out as she came around the corner. She saw her friend talking to Midori, and stopped in her tracks.

"Hey Ichigo." Midori said, closing her eyes. "How are you?"

"Fine." Ichigo answered back, twitching a bit.

"What's wrong?" Midori asked.

"Nothing!" Ichigo brought her hands up and scooted away from the two, leaving them alone.

"That was strange…" Midori blinked. She looked back to Lettuce. "I didn't hurt you at all did I?"

"No." She shook her head and lowered her head. "Uh…do you work here or something?"

"Yeah." Midori smiled. "I work part time here to help my family out with paying the rent."

"Oh." Lettuce's hands moved down to her skirt and grabbed the hems.

For some strange reason, Lettuce couldn't look Midori in the face. She didn't know if it was because she _liked_ her or if she was just embarrassed about everything that had happened when they first met. She just couldn't look her in the face, and she couldn't get the blush to leave her face.

"Is everything okay with you?" Midori asked, placing her right hand on Lettuce's shoulder. "Do you need me to walk you home or something like that?"

"No." Lettuce shook her head once more. "I'm going over to Mint's house tonight."

"What about in the mornings?"

"What?" Lettuce looked up towards Midori.

"Do you want me to walk you to school?"

Lettuce hadn't really gotten the chance to be alone with Midori and learn anything about her because they hadn't met up other then the times they had bumped into one another at random times. But this, this would be a set time where Lettuce would be able to talk to Midori one on one every day.

"I'd like that." Lettuce said, looking Midori in the eye.

"Alright then." Midori reached down into her apron and pulled out a notepad and a pen. "Why don't you give me your address and phone number?"

"Phone number!" Lettuce's face lit up.

"Yeah." Midori blinked as she handed the younger woman the pad and pencil. "What if you aren't going to school? You could call me…" She stopped talking and twitched. "Well I guess I need to give you _my _number instead. Sorry I spaced out."

Lettuce brought her right hand up to her mouth and began to giggle a bit. Midori smiled from seeing Lettuce react in such a way, and began to laugh with her.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ichigo and Mint stood watching from the next aisle over. They had pushed over a few items enough so that they could see what was going on between the two.

"So what are they talking about?" Ichigo asked, wiggling closer.

"I don't know!" Mint wiggled against Ichigo. "They're talking so low! I want to know what Lettuce is blushing about!"

"I didn't know you liked to gossip so much." Ichigo said, looking over towards her blue haired friend.

Mint sighed. "And I didn't know that _you_ were so interested in this."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh nothing." Mint smiled and looked away from Ichigo, teasing her.

Ichigo puffed up her cheeks once more. "Tell me."

"No."

"Come on!"

The two wiggled around, trying to push one another in order to get one to tell the other. As they pushed, the bread sitting in front of them began to fall off of the shelves. Loaf after loaf fell off of the shelve until all of the bread fell off, catching Midori and Lettuce's attention.

"Uh…" Ichigo blinked.

"I just finished putting those up." Midori twitched as she looked at all of the bread that had fallen on the floor.

"I'll help you pick them up." Lettuce walked over to the fallen bread and began to stack them back onto the shelf.

"Thank you." Midori walked over and began stacking the bread as well.

"Come on." Ichigo tugged on Mint's outfit.

"No way." Mint turned away from the red head. "That's commoner's work."

"Fine."

Ichigo broke away from Mint and began to pick up a few loafs of bread that the other two had missed. Once Midori had checked all of the bread and made sure it was in the right place, she looked back towards Lettuce.

"Did you give me your number and address?" She asked.

"Yes." Lettuce held out the notepad with another heavy blush on his face. "Here you go."

"Thank you." Midori placed it in her pocket where it originated. "I'll be at your house on Monday morning."

"Thank you." Lettuce bowed.

"Come on," Mint sighed heavily, "lets pay so we can leave already."

"No need." Midori moved her right hand back and forth. "Go ahead and leave if you're in such a hurry. I'll cover whatever you bought."

"Really?" Ichigo said happily.

"Yeah, anything for Lettuce and her friends."

"Thanks!" Ichigo bowed.

"Come on." Mint said once more.

The three left with Lettuce waving to Midori as she walked out. Her heart was pounding away in her chest, and she felt as if she couldn't catch her breath. A strong feeling was running through her but she couldn't find the _right_ words to describe exactly how she was feeling. Whatever feeling it was though, she wanted it to last as long as it could.

* * *

"So you do?" Ichigo asked, placing her face next to Lettuce's.

"I don't know!" Lettuce moved a pillow in her face to hide her blush.

The three, Ichigo, Lettuce, and Mint were sitting in Mint's large bedroom discussing what had taken place earlier in the day. Mint, however, was sitting in a corner of her room, drinking tea off of a small desk.

Lettuce was dressed in a plain, light yellow outfit while Ichigo was in a pink outfit that had small kittens printed on it. Mint was sitting in the corner wearing a small pink dress that cut off a bit above her knees.

"You looked so comfortable with her!" Ichigo teased with a grin. "Are you going to write her a letter?"

"I don't know!" Lettuce answered once more. "I don't even know if I like her or not!"

"I think she likes you." Ichigo narrowed her eyes and moved closer towards Lettuce.

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

Lettuce shoved her face into her pillow once more. "I don't think we should talk about this anymore!"

"Why not?" Ichigo sat back.

"Because."

"It is getting rather annoying." Mint said, surprising Ichigo.

"How can you say that?" Ichigo asked as she turned to the woman.

Mint stood up. "I'm going out for a moment. Talk about what you want while I'm gone."

Without saying another word to the two, Mint walked out of the room. Ichigo blinked as she watched Mint close the door, and waited a few moments to see if she would come back to talk about what was wrong.

"What's wrong with Mint?" Ichigo asked out loud.

"I don't know." Lettuce said, bringing the pillow down from her face. "I'm sorry if I've been annoying her. I didn't mean to do anything like that."

Ichigo looked back towards Lettuce. "I know you didn't, don't feel bad about anything."

"Thank you." Lettuce smiled, even though inside she was still upset about what happened.

* * *

Mint walked outside of her large mansion and into the garden. She walked around, looking up at the moon and the flowers growing around her before she began walking back to her house. As her hand moved towards the doorknob, she stopped herself.

"_I think she likes you."_

"_Did you give me your number and address?"_

She pulled her hand away from the doorknob and changed her hand into a fist as she thought about what Midori and Lettuce had been talking about. She looked down towards her fist, and then looked away, clenching her eyelids to one another.

_Midori…_ She thought.

* * *

R&R please! 


	3. Walk

I don't own Tokyo Mew Mew or any of it's characters, I only own Midori.

This update is for my friend, Rev-On V5.O who's sick right now. I hope she gets better soon because I miss talking to her! Anyways, this chapter will have something that looks like this** 000** that means that a dream scene is starting and until you see it once more, it's not over.

Enjoy!

* * *

Lettuce had come home from the sleepover and was now sitting in bed on Sunday night, fearing meeting up with Midori the next morning. She was just so nervous about what or would go wrong the next morning, but at the same time she wanted to feel all the feelings she had felt before once more.

_I'm too nervous_. Lettuce thought as she shoved her face into her pillow. _What if something goes wrong? What if I say something stupid?_

Another feeling came up from her stomach as she lay down on her bed and looked up towards the ceiling. She couldn't find words for this feeling but this feeling was one that she found she didn't like. She looked down towards her hands to see that they were once again shaking as they had done during class.

_I need to watch what I eat._ Lettuce thought. _I don't think I'm getting enough sugar in my body._

Lettuce shook her head and took off her glasses so that she could sleep. She placed them on the nightstand next to her and then relaxed only to start thinking of Mint. For some strange reason, Mint had acted so strangely during the sleepover but once she came back from her walk she acted as if nothing was wrong.

_Did I do something wrong?_ Lettuce asked herself. _I wonder though…what was wrong with Mint?

* * *

_

The next morning Lettuce showered and dressed quickly. As she was combing her hair, she could hear her mother calling her from downstairs. She stepped out of the bathroom and looked downstairs with her hair in her hands to see Midori standing in the doorway.

"Ready?" Midori asked with a gentle smile.

"Yes!" Lettuce perked up. She moved her hair up until it was the way she liked it and ran towards the door, grabbing her back on the way. "Bye Mother! I'll see you after school!"

"Be careful Lettuce!" Her mother answered back sweetly.

"I will be!"

Lettuce closed the door and held her bag in her hands tightly as Midori led her down the streets. Their walk was silent until Midori sighed heavily, and moved her hands behind her head along with her own black bag.

"Midori?" Lettuce asked, breaking the silence.

"What?"

"Why do they call you the Queen of Gangs?"

Midori laughed. "They call me that? They properly call me that because the gang I run is the biggest around."

"Oh." Lettuce looked away.

Midori blinked and looked towards her. "Is something wrong?"

"No." She shook her head back and forth.

"Ya sure?" Midori asked, moving her face into Lettuce's playfully.

"Yes!" Lettuce pulled away with a heavy blush on her face.

Midori pulled away and moved her hands behind her head and held her brown bag along with it. Lettuce lowered her head once more and took in a deep breath, still nervous about everything that was going on around her. Wanting to find something else to talk about, Lettuce looked back towards Midori.

"So how long have you been working at that store?" Lettuce asked.

"A few years now." Midori answered, shrugging. "The people who own it are friends of my family so I volunteered to work there at a young age."

"Can you drive yet?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I can't use my family's car anyway, my dad is always using it for _his_ job."

Lettuce quickly thought of another topic. "What do you want to do when you get older?"

"I wanna be an artist." Midori asked with a large smile on her face.

"You can draw?" Lettuce perked up and looked up at Midori with bright, excited, eyes.

"Yup!" Midori smiled.

"Can I see a picture that you've drawn?"

Midori blushed. "I don't have any of them with me now, but we can meet up after school and I'll have one for you then."

"Really?" Lettuce smiled.

"Really."

* * *

Midori dropped Lettuce off at school and then walked away towards her own school. Lettuce had just settled down in class when her hands began shaking again. She ignored it the best she could but she suddenly found herself tired in the middle of class.

_What's wrong with me?_ Lettuce thought, moving her hand to her forehead. _Why am I so tired all of a sudden? I got plenty of sleep last night so I should be fine._

Towards the end of class once all of her work was done, Lettuce folded her arms and laid them onto the top of her desk. She moved her head down onto her folded arms and gently closed her eyes, only to fall into a deep sleep within moments.

**000000000000000000000**

Lettuce was underwater the next time she opened her eyes. She opened her mouth by instinct only to take in a deep breath of water. Her lungs burned deeply, and slowly a small river of blood slipped out of her mouth.

She looked up towards the top of the water and saw the sun shining on the top of the water. The water didn't look too far away so she stretched her arms forward, trying to reach the top of the water. Her fingers stuck out of the water but when she tried to push herself up to reach the top something tugged her down. Looking down Lettuce found that her legs were tied together by a thick, sliver chain.

She panicked.

Reaching over and over again for the top of the water, Lettuce began to open her mouth again and again, trying to scream even though the water just flowed into her mouth. Blood began pouring out and pain stuck the middle of her chest.

Suddenly things became black and Lettuce opened her mouth once more to scream when a new light came to her.

**000000000000000000000**

Lettuce opened her eyes and saw that the classroom was now empty. When she fully woke up, she realized that the teacher was shaking her.

"What?" Lettuce asked, blinking.

"You were shaking in your sleep." The teacher answered. "You kept moving your mouth like you were screaming and moving around! I was worried about you!"

"Oh." Lettuce blushed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to worry you at all. Please forgive me."

The teacher pulled away. "It's alright Lettuce, why don't you go to lunch? Maybe getting out of here will make you feel better."

Lettuce giggled a bit, humoring the teacher. "Maybe. Thank you."

* * *

Lettuce found herself back at the café instead of the school for lunch. She normally wasn't one to skip the end of the day but she had finished all of her homework already so she justified her skipping to herself. Once inside of the café, she could see that Mint was there as well.

"Mint?" Lettuce asked, walking over to her.

Mint looked up towards her with a cup of tea in her right hand as always. Seeing Lettuce, Mint scooted over, opening the seat next to her. Taking the invite, Lettuce walked over and set her bag down.

"What are you doing here?" Mint asked, not looking at the green haired girl.

Lettuce looked away. "I just came here to get something to eat and then I'm going home. I'm not feeling very well."

"Huh." Mint blinked. "Is that all?"

"Yes. What are you doing here?"

Mint looked away. "I came here to relax. At least Ichigo isn't here, I can finally be here and relax without her running around."

Lettuce looked at Mint strangely. "Is something wrong Mint? You've been acting strange for the past few days. Did I do something to make you angry at all?"

Mint placed her cup down onto the white saucer. "No, don't worry about anything, it's nothing _you've_ done."

"Can you tell me?" Lettuce moved closer towards Mint.

"No. I really don't want to talk about it."

Lettuce sat back in her seat, placing her hands in her lap. "Alright. I'm sorry I bothered you about it."

"Don't worry about anything Lettuce." Mint closed her eyes. "I'm fine."

A smile crossed Lettuce's face. "That's good!"

* * *

A few hours later, Lettuce walked back to her school and stood outside, waiting for Midori to come like she promised. After waiting for a few moments, Midori came walking up with a happy, yet tired look on her face.

"Hey Lettuce." Midori said gently once she arrived next to the young woman.

"Are you okay Midori?" Lettuce asked, looking at the sleepiness in her face. "You look very tried."

"It's nothing, just a long school day." Midori laughed. "So you wanna go get something to eat? I've got to work in three hours so we have plenty of time to walk around if you want."

"We can go to my café." Lettuce said, thinking it over for a moment.

"I love that place!" Midori grinned. "Come on, let's head over!"

A few minutes later the two arrived at Café Mew Mew. They walked inside and found a table by the kitchen. As they sat down, Ichigo walked over to the two, dressed in her café outfit.

"Welcome to Café Mew Mew, how can I…" Ichigo blinked as she noticed whom the two customers were. "Oh hi Lettuce, Midori!"

"Hey Ichigo." Midori answered back with a small wave.

Ichigo shook her head. "Here are two menus, just call me when you're ready to order alright?"

"Ichigo!" Ryou yelled from the kitchen.

"Coming!"

Ichigo took off towards the kitchen as Midori picked up a menu to look at while Lettuce looked around the café. Mint, and Ichigo seemed to be the only ones working today for whatever reason. As she looked, Mint walked by the table.

"Mint." Lettuce said gently, causing Mint to stop walking. "Are you off for today?"

"Yes." Mint nodded. "I've got a fan dance lesson I have to go to."

"Who else is coming in?"

Mint opened her mouth to answer but stopped as she spotted Midori. She paused for a long moment, and then shook her head a bit.

"Pudding is and Ichigo is staying for the rest of the day." Mint answered in a harsh tone. "I'm leaving now, I can't be late."

"Mint…" Lettuce blinked.

Mint walked away without saying anything else to the green haired girl, and leaving her in wonder. She thought she had done something wrong _again_ but just couldn't figure it out. What was she doing wrong? She had never seen Mint act like that before.

"Something wrong?" Midori asked, breaking Lettuce's thoughts.

"No." Lettuce shook her head and then lowered it. "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" Midori lowered her menu, and placed it down onto the white table.

"Yes." Lettuce sighed.

Wanting to cheer Lettuce up, Midori reached down into her brown bag and searched through the papers in there. After finding what she wanted, she pulled out a small piece of white paper and moved it towards Lettuce.

"What?" Lettuce asked, looking up towards the paper.

"Remember? You wanted me to draw you a picture." Midori said as a blush crossed her face. "Here it is, I haven't gotten a chance to color it yet but it's shaded."

The blush crossing Midori's face caused the frown on Lettuce's face to disappear. She just thought it was cute and she had never seen the older woman blush before, _she_ had always been the one that blushed.

"It properly looks fine." Lettuce said, taking the paper.

Lettuce brought the paper up to her face and took the drawn picture in. It was a simple drawing of Mew Mew Lettuce, Midori's favorite Mew Mew. As she looked at all of the hard work and all of the shading, a deep blush crossed Lettuce's face.

It's me. She's drawn a picture of me without noticing at all. Lettuce thought, the blush causing her face to grow hot.

"Do you like it?" Midori asked, sinking down into her chair with embarrassment.

"Yes…" Lettuce said breathlessly. "It's…so well done."

"Good." Midori smiled. "Because I want you to have it."

"Really?" Lettuce looked back up towards the older woman with her mouth open. "I don't think I could keep something like this! You've worked so hard on it!"

"I worked hard on it for you." Midori blushed once more. "I wanted you to like it."

Lettuce lowered her head a bit. "Really? Why would you draw something like this for me?"

"Because you're the only one who has really sat down to talk to me." Midori said, causing Lettuce to look back up to see her with _her_ head lowered.

"What?"

"Some people are afraid of me and don't want to talk to me." Midori confessed, gripping the sides of her chair. "I've never let anyone see any of my pictures because they never want to sit down and talk to me. You're the first."

"Midori." Lettuce said gently. "Why is that?"

"My reputation." Midori answered. "It's gotten so bad before that I had a hard time finding a job until I found that store to work at."

The Lettuce remembered what she had asked earlier. She had asked why they called her 'The Queen of Gangs' meaning that Midori's reputation had come into play once more. Feeling bad, Lettuce placed the picture Midori had drawn onto the top of the table and gave a light sigh.

"I'm sorry then." Lettuce lowered her head as if she were bowing without getting up. "I didn't mean to bring up those rumors this morning. If I had known that it bothered you then I wouldn't have brought it up at all."

Midori giggled a bit. "It's fine Lettuce, I know you didn't mean too."

"Still." Lettuce sighed once more.

"Don't be upset." Midori laughed. "Let's talk about something else, I didn't mean to ruin the mood."

* * *

An hour later the two and finished their small meal and were now walking down the street, talking to one another. They walked towards Lettuce's house where Midori stood outside and walked Lettuce towards the front door.

"I'll see you tomorrow morning alright?" Midori said with a smile. "I've got to get to work before I'm late so I'd better get going."

"Alright." Lettuce blinked and smiled. "I'll see you in the morning."

"See ya!"

Midori walked away from Lettuce, allowing her to walk inside. Once she had closed the door behind her, she ran up into her room and jumped on her bed. She had no idea why but there was a large smile crossing her face she couldn't make go away. She just felt so happy that Midori had opened up to her and spoke to her almost all day.

_Midori._ Lettuce thought with a slight giggle_. I think…I do like you but…how do I tell you? Or anyone else?_

_

* * *

_R&R please! 


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